The success narrative is that someone cottoned onto the winning formula after the first try or it was sitting there ripe for the picking. The truth is that a killer product is born out of iteration and persistence.

Want to hire a great employee. Widen the net and meet a lot of people. Hone your focus, garner feedback, revisit the criteria, reaching more people. Hiring the right person isn’t just about luck, or the right person walking through the door at the opportune time. If you’ve met a lot of candidates, then you’ll recognize the person immediately.

Shipping successful product isn’t about a gut feeling and striking gold. It’s about relentless execution and velocity. Over time people forget the mistakes, false starts, and damp squibs and only remember the wins. That kind of selective memory is dangerous. That’s why sometimes the worst thing that can happen to someone is an early success. Early success leapfrogs the school of hard knocks which builds up the persistence muscle.

Quantity allows you to sift through the low-quality ideas and pick out the quality. It’s a little like scratch and peck.